Your in-text citations are just as important as your reference section.

APA format establishes clear rules forhow to cite works using author information.

This is often accomplished by including the name of the sources author and the publication year.

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Personal communications are the one exception to this rule.

How do you cite these resources in APA format?

In-text citations for journal or newspaper articles should use a short article title enclosed in parentheses and the date.

When article titles are long, simply use the first word or two of the title.

Book titles should be in italics.

Examples

…students demonstrated solid understanding of the concepts and information (Jones, 2001).

or

Jones (2001) found that students demonstrated a solid understanding of the concepts and information.

…later studies demonstrated a similar effect (Ross & Hudson, 2004).

Ross and Hudson (2004) found a similar effect in later studies.

…students demonstrated competence after reading about APA format (Smith et al., 2005).

Smith et al., (2005) found that…

Note that this is a change from earlier versions APA citation formatting.

The citation should also include the acronym of the organization if one is available.

Subsequent citations can simply list the acronym and the publication date.

and subsequent citations

APA (2000)…

(APA, 2000).

Be sure to check your references andcitationsusing the officialPublication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

If a book has just one author, simply provide the authors last name followed by the publication date.

APA citing should include the author’s last name, followed by the date of publication.

In some instances, a publication might not have a listed author.

Include the short title of the article followed by the date of publication.

…the findings were consistent with previous research (“New Study,” 2003).

All further citations should use the appropriate acronym.

If the author is unknown, include the first word or two of the article title in quotation marks.

Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.